The Affair [Showtime]

'The Affair': Showtime's human story about different points of view - premiere Oct 19th

I watched this last night and was bewildered by it.

Bewildered but intrigued - the bifurcated narrative is interesting and it looks great. Might be an autumn slow burner.

Just watched the first two episodes. I'm intrigued, it's a slow burner but I'm enjoying it. It sort of bothers me how different their conversations are from each perspective and that in his eyes she was carrying heels on the beach and in her eyes she was wearing flats...maybe men and women do interpret conversations differently!

At first I assumed

Only heard about this after the Golden Globe nominations of last week and started watching it a few days ago. The two leads are superb, I think, Dominic West and Ruth Wilson, both English actors playing American characters. It made me smile to think about other characters they have both played in the past, McNulty and Jane Eyre getting it on!

The show itself is slow, and subtle and draws you in. I like the split narrative, it shows the way we only remember what suits us, our memories totally based on our own perspective and can differ easily from someone else who experienced the same thing. The Alison character especially, in the two halves of the narrative, is so different, polls apart.

All in all really enjoying it. The Long Island setting is really effective, creates a kind of claustrophobia of a small town, and all of the petty hatreds and rivalries that it involves. Intense and relentless and perfectly paced.

I thought that they were going to be a little clearer with the major plot point in the series ie. Scotty's death. We still have no real idea when or how he died, and the series is now over. Obviously setting things up for series 2, but still, a bit light on detail with this, there is this big important chunk of the story that hasn't even been touched on.

Though both Ruth Wilson and Dominic West were nominated for a Golden globe, I thought the show really revolved around Ruth Wilson's performance. She is really mesmerising in this, playing the whole range of grief, lust, despair, desire. An intriguing concept, mainly brilliantly realized.